A man with schizophrenia who attempted to murder a baby in Tenerife has agreed to serve a sentence of up to seven and a half years of psychiatric confinement for the incident. This could also entail time in prison if his stay in a specialized facility does not reach five years.
The events that were to be tried on Wednesday at the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Audiencia took place last August when, after his path was obstructed by the stroller in which the one-year-old child was, the accused picked him up and shook him in the air before attempting to throw him onto the road where vehicles were passing.
The mother’s intervention was decisive in preventing this and saving the child’s life, while the father managed to restrain the defendant until the police arrived.
Admission to psychiatric facility
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During the oral hearing held on Wednesday, the Prosecutor’s Office accepted the psychiatric confinement sentence due to the diagnosis of the experts, who determined that the accused suffers from paranoid schizophrenia that requires medical treatment. This is impossible given the man’s circumstances, as he was homeless.
This combination of circumstances means that the accused is not entirely responsible for his actions, as acknowledged by the prosecution.
According to the guilty verdict issued in the trial by the Tenerife Provincial Court, the man will immediately enter a psychiatric facility, where he will remain until the doctors deem it necessary, for a maximum of seven and a half years.
If his stay is less than five years, he will serve the necessary time in prison to complete five years of imprisonment.
Attempted homicide offence
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The expert who testified in the trial indicated that such individuals suffer from delusions and hallucinations and can lead a relatively normal life as long as they are medicated and aware of their illness. However, in this case, living on the streets makes it very difficult.
In addition to accepting responsibility for this attempted murder, he is also responsible for two minor assault charges, having surprised and assaulted two women days earlier as they walked down the street.
In these cases, the imposed penalty is to pay a fine of 312 euros and to pay a civil liability of 100 euros and 500 euros to each of the victims.
The detainee carried out other assaults
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Days before the attempted murder, on an avenue in the city, the accused surprised a woman waiting at a bus stop and threw her to the ground.
As a result, the woman suffered injuries to the palms of her hands, mouth, and a contusion on her right buttock, which took three days to heal.
On another occasion and on a different street in the Tenerife capital, the man unexpectedly punched another victim in the face while she was walking with two friends, causing her to fall to the ground unconscious.
As a result of this assault, the victim suffered a contusion on the cheek, on the right cheekbone, and a hematoma on the left hip, which took ten days to heal.
